Actors in GrEEn business ecosystem mentor youth ... To spur them into entrepreneurship

A forum has been held to provide a platform for young people to engage with key actors and stakeholders in the Green Employment and Enterprise Opportunities in Ghana (GrEEn) market.

It was to enable the participants to learn at first hand the successes and challenges of activities to encourage them in their entrepreneurship journey as part of efforts to increase youth employment.

Organised by SNV Ghana, a global development organisation, it was part of activities for the third edition of the Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship (YEE) Global Forum 2023.

It brought together, local, regional and international stakeholders, including young entrepreneurs to explore how young people could engage with the green jobs market.

The forum also served as a platform for SMEs and young entrepreneurs to interact, share good practices and solutions to promote employment and entrepreneurship in the country.

Project

The forum was on the theme, "Building Partnerships for Inclusive and Sustainable Youth Entrepreneurship and Employment in green and emerging sectors.”

The GrEEn Project is a four-year programme being implemented by SNV and the UN Capital Development Fund in Ghana, under the anchor of the Ministry of Local Government Decentralisation and Rural Development and in close collaboration with the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations.

It is funded under the European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF), which European and African partners set up in 2015 to deliver an integrated and coordinated response to irregular migration, forced displacement and diverse causes of instability, including climate change.

Also, GrEEN is aimed at addressing the root causes of irregular migration by supporting sustainable and climate resilient local economies, green jobs and development in departure, transit and return regions.

GrEEN economy potential

The Ghana Country Director of SNV, Barbara White Nkoala, explained that the GrEEn project aimed to complement the efforts of the European Union Green Deal by unlocking actors potential towards a green and a circular economy.

She noted that, the overall objective of the GrEEn project was to contribute to addressing the root causes of irregular migration through green and climate, resilient local development and economic initiatives to improve the prospects of young women and men by creating employment and enterprise opportunities.

“Aimed at promoting the growth of Ghana's green and circular economy, GrEEn has four result areas.

They are stimulating local economies and creating short-term job opportunities, improving employability and entrepreneurship capabilities, increasing access and usage of financial services, leveraging remittances and supporting cash for work schemes and the final result area is incubating an accelerating SME, offering decent and sustainable jobs to youth, women and returnees to contribute to green and climate resilient local economies”, she stated.

Ms Nkoala said as part of the initiative to develop sustainable businesses, the GrEEn project rolled out the GrEEn Innovation Challenge as an instrument to award matching grants to SMEs with innovative ideas to help them expand their enterprises.

That, she said through the initiative, over Ghc3 million was awarded to 26 young entrepreneurs to scale up their businesses.

“SMEs are really one of the foundations and driving forces that create employment”, she added. 

Leverage

The Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour Awuah, said the threat of job losses and loss of livelihood were likely to exacerbate poverty and inequality and that such consequences had severe implications for the promotion of new forms of employment.

The minister said this in a speech read on his behalf by the Director of Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, at the ministry, Gloria Bortele Noi.

He, therefore, explained leveraging on the expertise, experiences and synergies of different actors would contribute to effective coordination and promotion of GrEEn jobs initiatives across sectors and stakeholders.